The killer disclosed his non-compliance with prescribed medication, his progressive hopelessness, longstanding agenda to annihilate on a great scale, and his "relief" at disguising his intentions in an earlier welfare check triggered by his family's concerns.
The California tragedy brought heart-rendering pleas from the families of victims, most notably those who specifically challenged Congress to solve the national scourge of mass killing. The Murphy legislation, H.R. 3717, has been long in the making, and specifically inspired by initiatives of the Energy and Commerce Committee following the Newtown massacre last fall.
And today at 12:30pm, the spirited debate on the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act returns in an important hearing covering the recent release of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations Report About Serious Mental Illness.
Presenters include:
Michael Welner, M.D., forensic psychiatrist, Chairman of the Forensic Panel
DJ Jaffe, Founder and Executive Director of Mental Illness Policy Organization
Edward Kelley, father of son with schizophrenia and advocate for reform
The hearing is located in Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2322, in Washington, DC. It will be streamed live here.
Dr. Welner, who has coined the term, "crisis psychiatry," has testified before the committee in the past about the particular importance of reforming commitment and HIPAA laws to saving lives. Previewing his testimony, he points out, "It isn't so simple as just saying, 'get help.' Those intending mass killing are invested in not being discovered or stopped, and they resists efforts to help them. Crisis psychiatry deals with realities that crisis can visit those with psychosis and those who are not."
Adds Dr. Welner, "We all have families we love and people whose autonomy we wish to respect. Families are essential to extending the capabilities of doctors in a crisis situation. Families and intimates need to be respected in crisis when their closeness gives them the insight no doctor or trained law enforcement could ever have alone. People can be endangered from suicide or violence or self-destructive choices in which no one is killed but others are destroyed. The importance of the Murphy legislation is only heightened by catastrophes that highlight the gaps in crisis psychiatry, and I pray that Congress listens to the will of the people with such practical and clear-thinking solutions available and votes to support H.R. 3717. Both parties need to step up and show a willingness to approach serious mental illness with changes to a system that does not necessarily need more money, but decisive human sensibilities."
To review the Committee's report, click here.
For more information about the bill, click here.
To read Dr. Welner's earlier Congressional testimony on this legislation, click here.
To view Dr. Welner's May 27 CNN interview with Chris Cuomo on Isla Vista and the legislation, click here.
To read recent coverage from The New York Times on debate over the bill, click here.
